Theodore N. Kaufman
Theodore Newman Kaufman (b. 22 February 1910 in New York City, New York, United States; d. 1 April 1986 in East Orange, New Jersey, United States), sometimes given incorrectly as Theodore Nathan Kaufmann, was an American Jewish businessman and writer. In 1941, he wrote and published Germany Must Perish!, which called for the sterilization of the German people and the distribution of the German lands to other countries.
Life
Theodore Kaufman was one of four sons born into a Jewish family that had recently emigrated from Germany to New York City. His father, Dr. Anton Kaufman (1883-1943), had been a reporter for the Berliner Morgen-Zeitung in Berlin before immigrating to the USA in 1905. Anton Kaufman was the publisher of the Newark Jewish Chronicle in the USA.
Theodore Kaufman's mother died in 1939. His three brothers were Herbert, Julian, and Leonard.[1] He attended South Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, and graduated around 1928.
Kaufman traveled widely as a young man, as far away as the Sahara Desert and Algeria[2], which he spoke highly of in later interviews.
Kaufman became the owner of a small advertising agency and ticket agency in South Orange, New Jersey. He published the New Jersey Legal Record. Kaufman founded the Argyle Press of Newark, New Jersey to publish his political pamphlets.
In 1939, Kaufmann was chairman of a shadowy group called the "American Federation for Peace".[3] He married the former Jean Siris in a civil ceremony on 23 November 1942, in Harris County, Texas.[4]
Germany Must Perish
In late 1940, he began writing Germany Must Perish!, the book he is most known for. It was published in early 1941, and inspired anger in Germany. The open call for genocide in the tract is neither metaphorical not sublle, as he makes very clear:
- "Since the fang’s poison and its deadly power rests not in the body but in the war psyche of the Germans, one can ensure the prosperity and security of mankind only by finally extinguishing this soul and the rotten body that houses it, removing it finally from the world. There is no other choice: Germany must perish!" (--From Germany Must Perish!)
- "Not only must there be no more German wars in fact, there must not even remain the slightest possibility of one ever again occurring. A final halt to German aggression, not a temporary cessation, must be the goal of the present struggle... [Germany] must be prepared to pay a Total Penalty. And there is one, and only one, such Total Penalty: Germany must perish forever! In fact -- not in fancy." (--From Germany Must Perish!)
On 26 September 1941, Kaufman said in an interview he gave to The Canadian Jewish Chronicle:[5]
- "I believe, that the Jews have a mission in life. They must see to it that the nations of the world get together in one vast federation. 'Union Now' is the beginning of this. Slowly but surely the world will develop into a paradise. We will have perpetual peace. And the Jews will do the most to bring about this confederation, because they have the most to gain. But how can you get peace if Germany exists? The only way to win an eternal peace is to make the punishment of waging war more horrible than war itself. Human beings are penalized for murder, aren't they? Well, Germany starts all the wars of magnitude. Let us sterilize all Germans and wars of world domination will come to an end!"
Post-war
After World War II, Kaufman disappeared entirely from public life. One scholar, Berel Lang, a visiting professor of philosophy and letters at Wesleyan University, failed to locate Kaufman in the records of the city of Newark and in other sources.[6]
Kaufman and his wife appear in the Montclair, New Jersey Directory in 1947. He is listed as being in the painted textile business at 50 Church Street, Montclair.[7]
See also
External links
References
- ↑ The Lewiston Daily Sun, page 9, January 2, 1943
- ↑ Time Magazine, Mar. 24, 1941
- ↑ The Book that Hitler Fears, Germany Must Perish!
- ↑ Texas County Marriage Records.
- ↑ The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, 26. September 1941, Page 5: Hitler will be nothing but a Rosebud (Google-News)
- ↑ Lang, Berel (Spring 2006). "The Jewish "Declaration of War" against the Nazis". Antioch Review 64 (2): 363–373. doi:10.2307/4614991.
- ↑ Montclair City Directory, 1947
